
THE KATE GREENAWAY BOOKS 


RUTH CAMPBELL 
























\ 


Glass ~P2 11 



Book -^C 
Copyright ?_JX _ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 


























Marcia Sat On Her Throne Like a Really Queen 




















































































THAT PINK AND 
BLUE AFFAIR 


By 


RUTH CAMPBELL 

9 * 


Author of 

“The All-Alone House” 

i 

“The Runaway Smalls” 


> > 

»> > 

* 

Illustrated by 

HATTIE LONGSTREET PRICE 


THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY 

PHILADELPHIA 
I 923 






COPYRIGHT 

1923 j* B Y 
THE PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 



Manufacturing 

Plant 

Camden^ N. J. 



NOV 30 ’23 

©C1A7C6054 

, .V 

7 

1 < 1 


Printed in the U. S. A. 







This book is dedicated to my son 
COLIN CAMPBELL 


That dearest of lads whose enthusiastic 
interest has been my greatest inspiration 














ILLUSTRATIONS 


Page 

Marcia Sat on Her Throne Like a Really Queen, Frontispiece 


They Stood and Stared, Too Entranced to Move. 12 

“ It’s After Seven, Tommie Boy. What About the 
Pony? ”. 24 

They Drove All Morning. 31 

The Rest Fell to Gathering Grass for Their Wonderful 

Pet. 39 

“ Right Now the Weather Seems Brighter,” said Tommie. 50 

They Played at Robin Hood and His Band. 64 


That Pink and Blue Affair 








That Pink and Blue Affair 


CHAPTER I 

M ARCIA was going* to be ten years okl in one week. 

Being ten was quite an event. Only two of the seven 
cousins had been ten. Buster and Kenneth, and the 
rest looked up to them with quite a decided envy since those 
important birthday anniversaries. Buster was twelve and Ken¬ 
neth was just a little older. Of course none of them had 
reached their teens, but just getting near the teens was exciting 
enough and as each one had a birthday anniversary the rest 
showed a proper respect for the accomplishment. 

Being ten was in itself a wonderful thing then, but more 
wonderful still was Grandmother’s present to Marcia, for on 
that day Marcia was to have a party and a very grand one. 

“ Whom would you like to invite? ” Grandmother asked, and 
the loyal little girl answered: 

“ Only my cousins. I love to play with them on ordinary 
days and they are good enough on birthdays.” 

“ But you must have other playmates you’d like to ask,” 
Grandmother said. 

“ There would be too many of them, and it would make too 
much trouble for you,” Marcia told her, and so it was decided 
to have only the cousins, but to have the party a really party 
just the same. 

There were seven of the cousins. Colin, who lived in another 
city and was spending the summer with his grandmother, 
Buster and his little sister, Elizabeth Anne, Marcia and her 

7 



8 That Pink and Blue Affair 

sister, Cara, and Tommie and Kenneth who had no brothers 
and sisters. 

But the children never counted themselves as seven; they 
always spoke of themselves as ten cousins, because there were 
three dogs, Rex, who belonged to Grandmother and who was 
considered the property of every one of the children. Pat, a 
white and yellow hound belonging to Marcia’s father and 
Sandy who was Kenneth’s very own dog. 

The children loved Rex the most. ITe was so big and kind 
and so devoted to them all. Pat was good-natured but lazy, 
and Sandy was not lazy, nor was he any too good-natured. 
Of course he never growled or bit the children. Rex would 
have chewed him to pieces if he had, but the children always 
felt that Sandy’s crossness was very near the surface and they 
never teased him long or hard. 

Every day the seven children and the three dogs played at 
the Big House where Grandmother lived. They romped all 
over the house, for Grandmother was not a nervous sort who 
could not bear noise. They played on the great beautiful 
lawns and in the wonderful stables where Grandmother’s 
horses lived and where the carriages and silver harnesses were 
kept. 

On rainy days the children loved the stables for they could 
play going to races in the carriages, the boys sitting in front 
and driving imaginary horses with terrifying cracks of the 
whip and loudly shouted orders, and the little girls sitting like 
fine ladies in the back and bowing stiffly to each other as they 
pretended to pass. 

They never touched the horses. Henry the old coachman 
saw to that. Once Tommie had perched on a keg and looking 
over the top of the stall had clucked to Dandy until that poor 


That Pink and Blue Affair 9 

horse, nervous and plunging, almost jumped over the stall. 
Henry had heard him kicking, and coming up behind Tommie 
had lifted that naughty boy from the keg and spanked him 
soundly. Henry had no right to spank one of the children, 
but on the other hand Tommie very well knew that it was for¬ 
bidden to bother the horses, so he did not tell his mother and 
father and although Henry did, they never mentioned it. They 
thought Tommie had been punished enough; anyway they did 
not want to interfere with Grandmother’s servants. 

But the Big House to the children was the most wonderful 
place in the world and they left their own homes as soon as 
breakfast was over and often did not return until night. 
Grandmother enjoyed having them stay for lunch and occa¬ 
sionally for supper if she was not going to have other guests. 
She loved the children dearly and in return they gave her the 
devotion of little slaves. They quarrelled to see who should 
wait on her and they never were impatient or rude when she 
corrected them, and they never arrived at the Big House or left 
it without giving her hugs and kisses and telling her how much 
they loved her. 

So when Grandmother said she would give Marcia a party 
at the Big House for a birthday present, the children were all 
very pleased and excited and made great plans for the day. 

“Are you sure you want only the cousins? ” Grandmother 
asked Marcia again. 

“ .Wouldn’t more be too many? ” Marcia asked. Down in 
her heart she really thought a very large party would be 
wonderful. 

“ It would for every day, but this is quite an occasion,” 
Grandmother answered. 

But Marcia thought she would ask for the cousins only. 


io 


That Pink and Blue Affair 

Colin was disgusted with her. “ It will be like every day 
except for the refreshments,” he scolded. 

“ We’ll wear our party clothes,” Marcia answered. 

“ And they’ll be a great help,” Colin snorted. “We boys 
won’t be able to play in them and you girls will just act stuffy.” 

“ I don’t care,” said Marcia. “ I’ll have a good time and I 
think Grandmother is dear to give a party anyway, and I just 
won’t bother her by asking the whole town. It’s going to be all 
pink and blue.” 

“ Pink and blue what? ” asked Tommie. 

“ Pink ice-cream and cake tied with blue ribbons, and sur¬ 
prise presents tied with blue paper and pink ribbon. I love 
pink and blue.” 

“ Let’s not call it a party then,” said Colin. “ Let’s call it 
a pink and blue affair. When my mother gave a big dance 
where we live, the papers spoke of it as ‘An Affair.’ Mother 
said that was quite the thing, a social event or an affair, and if 
this party is going to have all of that style let’s give it a grand 
name.” So the children spoke of the coming party as “ That 
Pink and Blue Affair,” and when they told Grandmother she 
looked very serious and said: 

“ I am very much complimented to have you give it such a 
fine name and I’ll try to make it as fine as the name.” Grand¬ 
mother was such a dear and always understood. 

The days were so slow to pass, but every morning the chil¬ 
dren met and said, “ It isn’t very long now.” And finally the 
great day arrived. 

Colin had been told that he could stay with Tommie the 
night before, and he carried his best clothes with him to dress 
the next day before going to the Big House. He was to stay 
away until afternoon and then the seven little cousins and the 


That Pink and Blue Affair n 

three dogs were to meet at Marcia’s and go together to the 
party. 

That morning dragged worse than any of the days before. 
The children thought it never would pass, and they were so 
excited they just couldn’t play games or do anything to hurry 
the minutes along. They simply could not think of anything 
else, hut sat on Marcia’s porch and talked about it. 

“ There are the twelve o’clock whistles,” shouted Tommie 
joyfully. “ Now we can all go home for lunch and then it 
will be time to dress for the party. We’ll be back at two, 
Marcia.” 

“ Grandmother said not to come until half-past two,” Marcia 
told him. 

“ Well, can’t we come here, I want to know? ” Tommie de¬ 
manded. “ Do you want us to be late? ” 

“ No,” said Marcia, “ you’d better come at two after all.” 
And so the seven little cousins and the three dogs collected 
again on Marcia’s porch at two o’clock. The dogs had ribbon 
bows on their collars and the cousins were all neat and tidy in 
clean blouses and best suits and starched frocks, with shoes 
astonishingly polished and faces almost as shiny. 

“ You look so funny, clean, Tommie,” Cara giggled, and 
Tommie said honestlv: 

“ I feel funny too, but I won’t stay that way long.” 

Marcia’s mother came out of the house. 

“All ready to go? ” she asked, and the cousins bounded to 
their feet like rubber balls. 

Away they raced to the Big House, jumping and shouting 
and hardly touching the walk with their eager excited feet, 
but when they reached the Big House they stood like little 
stone figures, their mouths opened, their eyes glued on the 


12 


That Pink and Blue Affair 



They Stood and Stared, too Entranced to Move, 


»»* 


































That Pink and Blue Affair 13 

lawns and the scene before them. Marcia was the first to 
speak. 

“ I can’t believe it—are those our lawns? Is this the Big 
House? ” 

“ It’s magic! ” cried Kenneth. “ How ever did they do it? ” 

They stood and stared, too entranced to move. Grand¬ 
mother, who was standing on the front steps, saw them and 
came quickly down the long walk to welcome them. 

“ What is the matter with you all? ” she cried gaily. “ Have 
you all turned to stone? ” That broke the spell. They rushed 
to her side and grouped about her. 

“ Grandmother dear, how did you do it? It’s like a fairy 
park! It’s beautiful! Oh! Grandmother! ” they all cried. 

Grandmother smiled at them tenderly. “ Welcome to our 
party,” she said. “ Come now and meet the other guests.” 
And with the children clinging to her, she turned and walked 
happily back to the Big House. 



CHAPTER II 


S MALL wonder the children were astonished, for as 
Kenneth had said, it was as if some sort of magic had 
been used to change the lawns from the regular every 
day lawns into a sort of fairyland. 

Down near the big elms was a merry-go-round, not a regular 
one like the merry-go-rounds at amusement parks and fairs, 
but a smaller one with twelve horses prancing busily around, 
and an important little gasoline engine puffing away as if it 
enjoyed making the horses prance. 

On a platform under the walnut trees was a band. A really 
band of five men. Two of them played horns, one played a 
piano, one played a saxophone and the other a drum. It was 
as grand as any circus band and the children could hardly 
wait to have it play. 

On the lawn in front of the Big House was a blue awning 

and under it a stand. Roy, the gardener, stood behind it. He 

14 





That Pink and Blue Affair 15 

was dressed like a clown with half of his suit pink and the other 
half blue, and he poured sweet, cool lemonade into glasses for 
anyone who wanted it. 

There were other wonderful things too, hut before the chil¬ 
dren had time to look at them, Grandmother raised her hand. 
At that signal the band burst into a thrilling march and around 
the house came a procession that made the children squeal with 
excitement, for Grandmother had invited “ the whole town ” as 
Marcia said. 

“ Everyone we knew and everyone she knew,” Kenneth 
expressed it afterward. 

A little boy and girl led the march. They wore paper caps 
of many colors and carried sticks wound with colored paper 
and bells on the end, and they were followed by fifty dancing, 
shouting couples, each wearing a jolly paper cap and shaking 
a stick with bells on it. 

“ Fall in,” Grandmother called to the cousins, and as the 
line marched past them Marcia and Kenneth danced behind 
with the other little cousins following. There was no one for 
Cara to march with so Grandmother herself took Cara’s hand 
and laughing and singing with the rest she marched around 
the yard. 

“ I could hardly see the others, I was looking so hard at 
Grandmother,” Colin said the next day when the cousins were 
talking about the party. “ She didn’t look like Grandmother. 
She looked young, awfully young, her face all smiles and her 
eyes laughing like Marcia’s laughed. And when she danced 
along she seemed just a little girl grown taller.” 

“ I wonder if that is what my father meant when he 
said that Grandmother was seventy years young,” said Ken¬ 
neth. 


i6 That Pink and Blue Affair 

“ Grandmother will never be old,” said Marcia thought¬ 
fully. “ Outside she may look old, but inside she will be as 
young as we are.” 

Around the lawn marched the joyous procession, but when 
it passed the band stand there was a cry of “ Hands Up! ” and 
the leaders came to a halt. From behind the stand stepped 
four bandits. They were dressed in black velvet blouses and 
breeches with red silk sashes around their waists; and their 
caps were red silk with black quills stuck in them. Each had 
a red silk handkerchief over his face and carried a stick with 
bells on it which he pointed like a gun to the astonishment of the 
marchers. 

The children all stopped and held up their hands. Some 
of them looked a little frightened and one or two of the littlest 
girls began to whimper, but suddenly Kenneth called: 

“ Hello, Father! I know you. I’m not afraid.” 

“ You’d better be,” growled one of the bandits and shouted 
again “ Hands up! ” 

So while the children stood there with their hands up the 
four bandits tied pink ribbon belts, with blue bells on them, 
around each waist, and then the four bandits pulled the hand¬ 
kerchiefs from their faces, and Tommie and Buster and Marcia 
cried as Kenneth had done, “ Hello, Father! ” 

“ Join hands in a ring,” shouted the four bandits, and the 
children formed a big circle. 

The band began to play a rollicking march and the children 
started whirling around. Grandmother stepped out. It was 
too active for her, but the children went on faster and faster, 
dancing up and down and shaking their belts and sticks, until 
nothing could be heard above their happy voices and the tinkle 
of the bells. 


That Pink and Blue Affair 17 

Suddenly one of the bandits let the hands in his go, and the 
circle broke. Away went the children, rolling over on the 
soft lawns and turning somersaults, laughing and shouting, 
while the mothers and fathers and Grandmother joined in the 
laughter at the funny little heaps the children made of them¬ 
selves as they piled together. 

Such an afternoon! There was a fish pond where each 
guest fished for a surprise present. It was wrapped in blue 
paper and tied with pink ribbon as Marcia had said it would 
be. 

There was another little stand where they were given pink 
boxes with pure, sweet candies in them, and there was still an¬ 
other little tent where they played games. 

But the most exciting part of the afternoon was when the 
line formed again and to the music of the band marched to the 
flower gardens where little tables had been set. There Marcia 
was placed on a throne like a little queen and crowned with a 
wreath of pink and blue flowers. 

There were delicious things to eat; hot chocolate, three kinds 
of sandwiches, cold meats, creamed potatoes, jellies, ice-cream 
and cakes in all shapes, and then there were great baskets filled 
with fruits and fancy boxes of animal crackers. 

“You must wait on your queen,” Grandmother said; and 
so the little boys took turns passing things to Marcia who sat 
on her throne like a really queen and looked very pleased and 
proud. 

After refreshments the children marched again and played 
more games and then were ready to go home. But Grand¬ 
mother had another surprise for them. 

“ You are to stay until it is dark,” she said, “ and when you 


i8 


That Pink and Blue Affair 

get ready to go there will be a last surprise.” So when the 
soft summer twilight had fallen the children formed a line the 
length of the lawn and faced the tennis courts. There was a 
loud bang! a sizz! and a burst of fireworks in the air, and as 
the children watched, the sparks made themselves into letters 
and the letters spelled “ Good Night.” 

The band began another march and calling their good-byes 
and blowing kisses to Grandmother, the children marched away 
into the darkness. 

“Are you dug tired, Mother dear? ” asked one of the bandits, 
as the last good-bye was heard. 

“ Rather tired,” admitted Grandmother, “ but it was 
worth it.” 

“ What a precious you are,” another bandit said, “ and what 
a wonderful party you have given my little girl. She will 
never forget it and none of the rest will. The children will 
love you always for it.” 

“ It does not need that to make them love her,” laughed 
Kenneth’s father and his mother went on: 

“ Indeed it doesn’t. Sometimes I am quite jealous of you, 
dear; the children love you better than they do us.” 

Grandmother laughed. “ I guess not as much as that,” she 
said. 

“ Well, they love you as much as we all do,” said Marcia’s 
mother. 

Grandmother smiled again. Her eyes were very tender and 
there was a suggestion of tears in them. 

“ I wonder if a mother ever had better children or grand¬ 
children,” she said softly; and then after a minute, “ I’m going 
in now. Roy and Henry will take care of everything and 
you must follow your small persons home.” 


That Pink and Blue Affair 19 

And so calling good-night and blowing kisses, quite as the 
children had done, their fathers and mothers disappeared into 
the darkness of the fragrant summer night. 







































CHAPTER III 


T HE children were in a state of great excitement. 
Grandmother had bought a pony. She had told them 
the day after Marcia’s party and they had been wild 
with delight at the news. 

“ What color is he? ” Buster wanted to know. 

“ What’s his name? ” Colin cried. 

“ Is he big or little or fat or thin? ” Marcia asked, and the 
rest bothered Grandmother with questions until she put her 
hands over her ears and wouldn’t try to answer,—only smiled 
and shook her head until they were all quiet. 

“ Now,” she said, “ if you will let me get a word in I’ll tell 
you all I know about the wonderful new pony. I heard about 
the little fellow from Henry who said the owner was ready to 
sell him because the children in the family were getting too 
big to ride, so I sent Henry up in the country last week to see 
the farmer about it, and when he came back and told me what 
a dear little pony it was, I told him to tell the farmer we would 
take it right away.” 

“ Then when is he coming? ” Tommie asked. And Kenneth 
said: 

“ If the farmer’s children are too big to ride the pony it 
must be a very small one.” There was a touch of wistfulness 
in his voice, for Kenneth was growing fast and was afraid that 
he too might be too big to ride the pony. 

“ You needn’t worry,” Grandmother laughed. “ The 
farmer’s children are much older and bigger than you. You 

see they have had the pony ten years.” 

20 


21 


That Pink and Blue Affair 

“ Oh! ” cried Cara, “ isn’t that dreadfully old for a pony? ” 

“ He would have to be that old to manage you all,” Grand¬ 
mother answered. She knew that the seven little cousins would 
ask a good deal of their new plaything and that he would 
have to be a wise and experienced little pony to handle them 
all. 

“ Whose pony is it? ” Cara asked. 

“ He will belong to all of you; but you must never quarrel 
over him and you must be fair in your rides, and no one must 
keep him away longer than the others,” Grandmother told 
them. 

“ Of course we will be fair,” Buster said. But Grand¬ 
mother did not worry much about that, because the seven 
cousins were fair in their play. They divided treasures evenly 
and they did not cheat at games. Kenneth, who was the oldest, 
saw to that. His mother and father had always been fair with 
him and he knew that it paid to be honest in everything, and 
that they would all be happier that way. 

“ But when you drive you can all pile in,” Grandmother 
went on. 

“ Is there to be a cart too? ” the children cried. 

“Yes,” answered Grandmother, “a darling little red cart 
with yellow wheels and a brown leather harness to go with it. 
There are two seats in the cart and you can all get in. You are 
always crowding into things like fish in a basket anyway,” she 
finished. 

“ We like everything better when we are all together,” 
Marcia said. “ When there are more to enjoy anything, why 
then we enjoy it more.” 

The rest laughed and Colin said, “ It sounds queer but it’s 
true just the samey.” 


22 


That Pink and Blue Affair 


“ Is there a whip? ” Tommie wanted to know. 

“No!” answered Grandmother decidedly, and there was 
something in her voice that stopped any more questions about 
a whip. 

Elizabeth Anne suddenly gave a funny little skip and 
clapped her hands together, then she giggled. 

“ I’m so happy,” she explained to the others, and with a 
burst of happiness they all realized how dear their grand¬ 
mother was to have bought the pony. 

“ You are so good and sweet to us all,” Kenneth whispered 
shyly, and Colin, who understood his grandmother very well 
indeed, snuggled close to her and put three little kisses down 
her neck. That tickled Grandmother and she poked a finger 
in Colin’s ribs which made him laugh. 

“ Wouldn’t I be a heartless big ogress sort of a grandmother 
not to do nice things for such good grandchildren? ” she said. 

“ We aren’t always good,” Kenneth said honestly. “ Do 
you remember the time we painted the red Indians on the barn? 
I thought the rain never would wash them off.” 

“ So did I,” answered Grandmother, and the children 
squirmed a little at the memory of that naughty day. 

“ I’d like to forget about that,” Buster said with a scornful 
look at Kenneth, “ but someone is always dragging it up 
and making me ashamed. We agreed not to mention it any¬ 
way.” 

“ I’m sorry,” said Kenneth and Grandmother went on: 

“ After all, it does not bother you because it is mentioned, 
but because your conscience hurts.” And Colin finished: 

“ I guess you are right because I think of it often enough 
when we don’t mention it, and it hurts then too as much as 
when we do talk about it.” 


That Pink and Blue Affair 


2 3 

But Marcia was more interested in new pleasures than past 
naughtiness. 

“ What is the pony’s name, Grandmother? ” she asked. 

“ I am going to let you guess,” was the answer. 

So Marcia guessed “ Dandy.” 

“No,” said Grandmother. 

“ Major,” cried Tommy who favored military names. 

“No,” said Grandmother. 

“ Captain and Rainbow,” cried Elizabeth Anne and Cara 
together, and again Grandmother shook her head. 

“ We never can guess,” Buster said, “ you’ll have to tell us.” 
And Grandmother said: 

“ His name is ‘ Peekaboo.’ Isn’t that a jolly name for a 
pony? He has a wise little head and big round gentle eyes. 
His ears are always forward as if he were playing peek-a-boo 
and Henry says he looks very mischievous.” 

“ I wonder if he is really wise,” Kenneth said, and Buster 
answered: 

“Ponies are wise, you know; they know lots more than 
horses. Why is that, Grandmother? ” 

“ Because they are with children and are played with and 
fussed over. When animals are made playmates and chums 
of people they are much smarter. Don’t you know how it is 
with dogs? You can easily tell the doggies that have been 
talked to. They wag their tails and put their ears up and look 
interested when you speak, and dogs that have never been 
talked to wait for sharp orders before they realize that they 
are being spoken to.” 

“ Rex doesn’t need sharp orders,” said Colin. “ He knows 
as soon as you mention his name. I think he understands every 
word I say.” 


That Pink and Blue Affair 



“ It’s After Seven, Tommie Boy. What About the Pony f ” 


































































































*5 


That Pink and Blue Affair 

“ He does,” said Marcia. 

“ Indeed he does,” the rest chorused, for they all loved Rex 
and thought he knew as much as any person. 

“ When is the pony coming? ” Cara asked. 

“ Hemy is going to get him to-day and in the morning you 
are all to come up right after breakfast and wait in the library 
until you hear little hoof beats on the driveway and then you 
can all rush out.” 

“Oh dear!” sighed Elizabeth Anne, “Colin will see him 
first because he lives here at the Big House.” 

“ I wouldn’t look,” said Colin proudly. “ I’ll play fair and 
not go near the barn this evening.” 

The children hated to go home that night. They teased to 
stay to supper and hoped that they would catch a glimpse of 
Henry as he drove the pony past the house. But Grandmother 
knew perfectly well what schemes were floating around in their 
little heads and sent them all away early, and as they left the 
house Tommie, the irrepressible, shouted: 

“ I’m going to sit on my porch because Hemy always drives 
past my house. He says the dirt roads are much better for the 
horses’ feet. And after all I’ll see the pony first.” 

“ That you won’t,” laughed Grandmother. “ I’ll get your 
mother on the ’phone before you reach home.” And that was 
exactly what she did. So when Tommie hopefully planted 
himself on the porch for a first view of the pony, he was lifted 
gently by a laughing father who carried him in the house and 
up to bed in spite of his protests. 

“ Anyway I’ll get up about five o’clock,” he threatened as 
his father left the room. 

“ Old Sleepy-head! You’ll never get up at that hour,” said 
his father. “ Your mother will call you at seven.” 


26 


That Pink and Blue Affair 

And sure enough, when Tommie wakened in the morning 
his mother was leaning over him laughing and saying: 

“ It’s after seven, Tommie boy. What about the pony? ” 


CHAPTER IV 


B REAKFAST that morning was largely a matter of 
gulps with all of the children. Tommie crammed most 
of his breakfast-food down what he called his Sunday 
throat and choked and coughed and got as red as a cherry. 
His father threatened to hold him high by the heels to shake 
it out of him if he did it again, and his mother said: 

“ The place for your food, my son, is not in your lungs.” 

“ I couldn’t help it,” said Tommie. At least that is what 
he tried to say, but it sounded more like “ Bli bloub bloub blel 
bit.” 

“ Tommie,” said his father, “ stop talking with your mouth 
full.” And Tommie swallowed hard and looked startled for 
a minute, and then pushed his chair back. 

“ It’s no use, Mother, I’m too excited to eat. Please mayn’t 
I go now? ” 

“ Yes,” answered his mother, “ and if you get hungry ask 
Grandmother for bread and butter.” 

Tommie grabbed his hat, which he usually left somewhere 
during the day, and dashed out of the door. He stubbed his 
toe on the first step and rolled from the porch to the ground, 
sat up and rubbed a bruised knee, left his hat where it had 
fallen and raced down the street. 

On the corner he met Kenneth who said, “We are all going 
to meet at Marcia’s.” Marcia’s house was nearest the Big 
House and the cousins always made it the meeting-place. 
Marcia and Cara were there with Buster and Elizabeth 

Anne. “ Slow pokes,” they called as the others came up. 

27 


28 


That Pink and Blue Affair 

“ My mother made me eat my breakfast slowly,” said Ken¬ 
neth, and Tommie grinned. 

“ I choked and scared them, and they let me go without 
finishing,” he said. 

“ I can’t fool my mother and father that way,” Buster said. 

“ I don’t fool mine,” Tommie answered. “ I generally make 
them impatient.” 

“ Tommie, you’re bad,” Marcia accused. 

“ It’s not badness, it’s naturalness,” grinned Tommie. 

“ Yes, and I know what he means,” Buster said. “ It’s the 
same with me. It isn’t so much what I plan to do as what I 
seem to do.” 

Marcia spoke in a teacher’s-pet voice, “ I don’t know what 
you mean.” 

“ You needn’t act so stuck up about it,” Buster told her. 
“ Because you do, and if you don’t I’ll tell you. It is like some 
of the things we all do together. We don’t do them to be 
naughty but when the grown-ups find out about them we are 
told that we have been naughty. You remember the paint 
day, don’t you? ” 

Marcia grew less stuffy. “ Yes, I do,” she admitted, “ and 
I see now what you mean.” 

“ Let’s hurry,” Tommie interrupted. “ We are just poking 
along and Grandmother might think we didn’t want to see the 
pony.” 

“ She knows better than that,” said Kenneth, “ but let’s 
hurry anyway,” and they all broke into a run. 

They hoped Henry would be holding the pony on the drive¬ 
way by the side of the house, but he wasn’t; so they all raced 
into the house to wish Grandmother good-morning. 

Grandmother led them to the bay window. “ Now listen,” 


That Pink and Blue Affair 29 

she said, and they listened as quietly as kitty-cats listening for 
mice. 

Suddenly there was the sound of sharp little hooves on the 
cement and Grandmother said, “ Now you may go,” and they 
poured out of the house like marbles out of a bag, tumbling over 
each other and rolling down the steps. 

There stood Henry with a wide smile on his face, and hold¬ 
ing the dearest little pony the children had ever seen. They 
paused just a second and then flung themselves all over Henry 
and the pony and the cart. 

It was just as Grandmother had said. A darling little cart 
with two seats; the cart was painted red and the wheels were 
yellow and there was a brown harness. But best of all was the 
knowing little pony that seemed as pleased to see the children 
as they were to see him. 

“ You darling Peekaboo,” Marcia cried, and hugged him 
around the neck. Elizabeth Anne picked some grass and held 
it out with her hand very flat, and Tommie leaped to the front 
seat and caught the reins. 

“ Come on,” he shouted. “ Let’s go.” 

Grandmother, who had followed them out, said, “ Wait a 
minute before you start. I am sure we will never have a chance 
to tell you anything,—you won’t be here long enough; and 
Henry has some important things to tell you.” 

So Henry told them that they must always drive gently. 
Not to pull on the reins and never to hit Peekaboo with a 
stick. 

“ He won’t ever run away and he is so gentle that you do not 
have to hurt his mouth to make him stop,” he said, and then 
turned to Grandmother. “ I put a straight bit on him, and no 
check rein. I think he knows more about the road than the 


30 That Pink and Blue Affair 

children do and if they are gentle with him they will never get 
into trouble.” 

Grandmother smiled. “ That was right, Henry, and I know 
the children and Peekaboo will get on together splendidly.” 

Kenneth was allowed to drive first because he was the oldest 
and the rest were to drive in turn, each one four blocks. And 
so they started off, Peekaboo with his little brown ears forward 
and his pretty neck curved, and the children so pleased and 
proud that they actually swelled up like pompous little turtle¬ 
doves. They drove all morning and at noon Henry took Peek¬ 
aboo to the stables. 

“ He must rest this afternoon. He had a long trip down 
from the farm,” he said. 

“ Oh, Henry! aren’t you even going to let us play with him 
this afternoon? ” the children cried in disappointed tones. 

“ Yes,” Henry said, “ after he has been in his stable an hour 
you can take him with a halter and strap and let him eat grass 
on the lawn, but you must not ride or drive.” 

So the children spent a happy afternoon watching their pet 
nibble grass. Once, late in the afternoon, Peekaboo lay down 
and the delighted children scrambled all over him. 

“ He is like a big dog, just the same as Rex,” Cara said. 

The cousins hated to leave him and go to their own homes 
that night, but they were back early in the morning and found 
Henry willing to harness Peekaboo right away. 

" This morning let’s drive backward with ages,” Tommie 
suggested. 

“ What do you mean? ” Marcia wanted to know. 

“ Begin with the youngest instead of the oldest,” Tommie 
explained. 

That seemed fair and the rest agreed, and Elizabeth Anne 


That Pink and Blue Affair 


3 1 



They Drove all Morning. 



















32 That Pink and Blue Affair 

was given the driver’s seat. Very gently and proudly she took 
the reins, and off they went as they had the day before. At 
last it was Tommie’s turn. He perched on the front seat and 
took the reins. 

“ This time we are going to have a real ride,” he said. “ I’m 
not a scaredy-cat like Elizabeth Anne and Cara, and when I 
drive, Peekaboo can’t poke like an old mule.” 

Peekaboo trotted obediently for a few blocks and then slowed 
down to a walk. Tommie shook the reins but still Peekaboo 
walked. Tommie slapped him with one rein and cried, “ Lazy 
bones, go on,” and when Peekaboo persisted in walking Tom¬ 
mie reached under the seat and pulled out a long willow switch. 

“Tommie!” the girls cried, “don’t you use that. Grand¬ 
mother said we were never to hit him with a whip.” 

“ This isn’t a whip,” said Tommie, “ it is a switch.” 

“ It is the same thing,” Buster told him, “ and it will hurt 
him.” 

“ Who is doing the driving anyway? ” said Tommie pertly. 

Kenneth, who was sitting with Tommie, took the switch. 
“ Tommie,” he said, “ I know you won’t mind me and that I 
am not your boss, but Grandmother said you were not to hit 
Peek, and you promised.” 

“ I didn’t! ” Tommie answered. “ I never said a word.” 

“ Well, you’d better think twice before you do it,” Kenneth 
said soberly. 

“ Take your hand off the reins. I don’t interfere when you 
drive,” Tommie cried angrily. “ Get up. Peek.” 

Still Peekaboo refused to trot, and suddenlv Tommie 
brought the switch down on his back with a sharp, cutting 
stroke. 

Quicker than a flash Peekaboo’s head went down and his 


That Pink and Blue Affair 33 

heels came up. They hit the dash-board a resounding whack. 
Tommie struck him again and once more two iron-shod heels 
crashed against the dash-board 

“ Get out, Cara! ” screamed Marcia, and hopped out herself. 
Cara and Elizabeth Anne lost no time following, and Buster 
followed them. 

“ Quit it, Tommie,” Kenneth said in a low voice. But Tom¬ 
mie, generally the best-tempered little hoy in the world, was 
angry. He was furious at Kenneth for interfering, and he 
was still angrier at Peekaboo for refusing to mind. Swish! 
went the whip again. Bang! went the hooves. Kenneth fol¬ 
lowed Buster. Three more stinging blows and three more hard 
kicks. Kenneth turned to Colin. 

“ You hold Peekaboo’s head, and Buster and I will take 
care of Tommie,” he said. He caught the whip as Tommie was 
bringing it down again and wrenched it from his hand. Tom¬ 
mie dropped the reins and struck at him, and Kenneth dodged. 

“You stop,” howled Tommie. 

“ And you stop, too,” Kenneth answered. His voice was 
very cool and there was a dangerous look in his eyes. “ If your 
promise to Grandmother is no good simply because you made 
it with the rest of us, then we are going to make you play fair.” 

“ I’d like to know how,” Tommie raged. 

Kenneth caught Tommie’s hands and pulled him from the 
cart. Tommie lunged at him but Kenneth’s foot tripped 
him. He fell flat on his face and Kenneth promptly sat on his 
neck. 

“ Spank him, Buster,” he cried, and Buster spanked. Ten 
lusty, free-hand spanks. 

Kenneth got up and a screaming Tommie lunged at him 
again. “ I’ll fix you!” he cried. 


34 


That Pink and Blue Affair 

But Kenneth caught his hands a second time and held them. 
“ Listen, Tommie,” he said calmly. “ You can’t do anything 
with us all against you and you know it, and you know too that 
you can’t cheat. Maybe you did not promise Grandmother in 
so many words that you wouldn’t hit Peekaboo, but she under¬ 
stood that you wouldn’t and she trusted you. If you play fair 
we won’t tell her, but if you are going to be mean and sneaky, 
we will, and she won’t let you drive again all summer, and you 
know that too.” 

There was truth in what he said. Tommie began to calm 
down. “ But anyway,” he sobbed, “ you had no right to touch 
me. 

“ It was the only way to make you stop, and we did have a 
right to touch you. The pony belongs to all of us and we must 
all take care of him.” 

“ Yes,” Marcia interrupted, “ and we girls have a right to 
punish you too. You can’t drive for a week. You made us all 
nervous and you frightened Peekaboo, and it’s all your fault 
that the dash-board is whacked and marked.” 

Tommie looked at the dash-board and grew solemn. “ What 
will Henry say? ” he whispered. 

“ We’ll tell him,” Kenneth answered, “ and tell him too that 
you have been punished, and ask him not to tell Grandmother. 
I know he won’t, because Henry is fair.” 

The serious little crowd drove back to Henrv, and Tommie 
stood very straight in front of him and told the whole story. 

“ You say they spanked you? ” Henry asked. 

“ Yes,” answered Tommie, and there was no resentment in 
his voice. 

“ And the girls won’t let you drive for a week? ” Henry went 

on. 


That Pink and Blue Affair 35 

“ No, they won’t, and I think it is fair,” Tommie said man¬ 
fully. 

Henry thought a minute. Then finally he said, “ Yes, it is 
fair, and I don’t believe you will hit Peekaboo again.” 

“ Indeed I won’t,” Tommie assured him. 

“ Then there ain’t no use bothering your grandmother about 
it,” Henry concluded. “ I’ll paint the dash-board and it won’t 
show.” 

Tommie gulped, and remembering a term he had heard his 
father use, he said, “ I think that is very sporting of you.” 

There was a ghost of a smile on Henry’s face. “ It is only 
fair,” he said, and the children started off in the cart again. 

Roy, who had been listening in the barn, came out with a 
wide grin on his face. 

“ Don’t them children beat the Dutch? ” he said. 

Henry grinned back. “ They sure do,” he answered. 


CHAPTER V 


B USTER had been told not to play with matches and he 
wasn’t the only one of the cousins who had been told 
that same thing many times over, for the parents of the 
cousins had a great fear of fire and the horrible burns that 
might result. 

Years before, when alL of the aunts and uncles and fathers 
and mothers had played together as children, a little girl that 
they all knew and loved had been burned. It was on the 
Fourth and she was wearing a pinafore with pockets in it. In 
one of the pockets she had slipped a bit of burning punk, just 
a glow on the end of it, but it had been enough to set the light 
cotton material on fire and the terrified little girl had started 
to run. Before she could be caught by a big brother who put 
the flames out with his bare hands, she had been dreadfully 
burned and it had made a lasting impression on her little play¬ 
mates. So when they grew up and had children of their own 
they never allowed matches or fire, and it was the one thing 
that brought sure and severe punishment when the cousins dis¬ 
obeyed, and in consequence they did not often go against those 
orders. 

But Buster was going to be a Boy Scout and he had learned 
that Boy Scouts built campfires and cooked their own meals 
and did all of the things that hunters and trappers do, and 
he thought if he was almost old enough to be a Boy Scout he 
was surely old enough to carry matches. He never stopped to 

think that the Scouts have masters who guide them and take 

36 


That Pink and Blue Affair 37 

care of them, but filled his pockets with matches as if he had 
been a Scout Master himself. He really did not intend to play 
with them or light them, but he felt a certain pride in carrying 
them in his pockets and eased a guilty conscience by saying to 
himself: 

“ I won’t play with them, and nothing was ever said about 
just carrying them,” which was naughty in itself because he 
knew that he was half disobeying if he wasn’t altogether dis¬ 
obedient. 

On this particular day he had crammed a handful of matches 
into his hip pocket before he left his house for a day at the Big 
House where the children were to meet to play with the new 
pony “ Peekaboo.” Pie wanted to tell the others about it and 
brag a little, but the girls were always such tattle-tales about 
such things and there wasn’t any use having trouble over it, 
so the naughty Buster enjoyed the thought of his matches alone 
and felt a wicked pride in his age and independence when he 
reached back and put his hand on the bunchiness in his pocket. 

He found all of the cousins at the Big House. 

“ Oh, Buster! we are having such fun,” Kenneth called. 
“ Peekaboo will carry two of us, and he trots and gallops and 
seems to like it.” 

“ We took the saddle off at first,” said Colin, “ but his back 
was so round and slippery that we rolled right off.” 

“ You mean you rolled right off,” said Kenneth in a dis¬ 
gusted tone. “ I was all right, sitting in front and hanging 
on to Peek’s mane and then you began sliding off and grabbed 
me around the waist and pulled me off too.” 

“ I didn’t slide off,” protested Colin, “ I jounced! and every 
jounce I was farther on one side and I only grabbed you to 
pull myself hack.” 


38 That Pink and Blue Affair 

“ Yes, and a fine job you made of it too,” said Kenneth. 
“ Landed me in a heap with your foot in my face, you did. I 
must say it was comfortable for me.” 

“ I couldn’t help it. There wasn’t time to look where I was 
stepping,” said Colin. 

“ Anyway,” Marcia broke in, “ that’s why we put the saddle 
back on. Now two can ride and the one behind can hang on to 
the one in front and they both stay on.” 

“ It’s our turn next,” Tommie said to Kenneth. “ I haven’t 
been on once this morning.” 

“ You just came,” said Cara, 

“ Anyway I haven’t been on,” repeated Tommie. 

Peekaboo was trotting gently up and down the road in an¬ 
other minute with Tommie perched proudly in the saddle hold¬ 
ing the reins well out that thej^ might all see who was doing 
the driving. Colin clung behind like a little wooden monkey 
on a stick. He went up and down in jerky little thumps 
like the wooden monkey too, and so wide and set was the 
smile on his face that it might almost have been a painted 
smile. 

“ Hey!” called Buster who had run in to wish his grand¬ 
mother good-morning and had just come out of the house, 
“ what are you two doing? It’s my turn.” 

Tommie pulled Peekaboo around. “We weren’t going off,” 
he explained. “ You weren’t here so we thought we might as 
well have a little ride.” 

“ Well, I’ll ride now,” said Buster in a lordly tone. He put 
his foot in the stirrup and started to climb into the saddle, when 
suddenly he remembered the pocket full of matches. What if 
he should whack on the saddle as the others did when Peekaboo 
trotted. They might light by themselves and he did not care 


39 


That Pink and Blue Affair 



The Rest Fell to Gathering Grass for Their Wonderful Pet. 


to think what would happen. He took his foot out of the 
stirrup. 

“ I forgot something,” he explained to the others. “ I’ll have 
to go in the house a minute. Someone hold Peekaboo while 
I’m gone and I’ll be right back.” 

Marcia took the bridle and the rest fell to gathering grass 
for their wonderful pet, which the greedy little beast took with 
ill-mannered snatches, almost taking the little fingers with it. 

Once in the house, Buster looked about for a place to hide 
the matches. On a great stand in the front hall were many 















40 


That Pink and Blue Affair 

vases, just the thing. He slipped the matches from his pocket 
into a big blue vase and ran back to the children and Peek¬ 
aboo. 

“ Now I’m ready to ride,” he announced with the air of 
superiority that he felt became a boy big enough to carry 
matches, and he got on and started off. 

“ Let me ride too,” Tommie said. 

“ No. Each one is going to ride alone,” Buster answered 
and the rest cried: 

C“ That isn’t fair, you’re cheating.” 

“ Well then, just down the road. You all did,” and off 
Buster went. 

“ What’s the matter with him anyway? ” asked Colin, and 
Kenneth answered: 

“ All of a sudden he seems so pompous.” 

“ What’s pompous? ” asked Cara. 

“ Sort of pleased with himself and high and mighty,” Ken¬ 
neth told her, “ as if he has been getting high marks in school 
or just had a birthday and a five-dollar gold piece.” 

“ I don’t like Buster that way,” Marcia said. “ Generally 
he’s sweet, but lately^ lie’s awfully bossy.” 

It was true of course, the matches had spoiled Buster. He 
thought so well of himself that he did not think of anyone else 
and the children felt the change in him, but not knowing about 
the matches, naturally could not explain it. 

“Here he comes!” cried Tommie, who was sitting on the 
bank looking down the road. “ Now it will be my turn.” 

Buster got off willingly enough and when Tommie rode off 
he went to the blue vase for his matches. There was no one 
around. He took them from the vase and crammed them back 
into his pocket. He was proud of the hip pocket, too, and the 


That Pink and Blue Affair 41 

combination of matches and pocket made him feel more of a 
man than ever. 

Back in the yard he found his father who had come up to see 
the new pony. 

“ Beautiful, isn’t he? ” he cried to Buster. “ And how good 
and willing. I wonder if he would carry three of you.” 

“ Let’s try,” shouted Tommie. 

So Kenneth got up behind Tommie and Buster’s father said: 

“ Come on, Buster, I’ll toss you up behind the other two.” 
But Buster hung back. He was thinking about those matches. 

“ I guess I won’t,” he said. “ Peekaboo might get tired with 
so many on his back.” 

“ Oh, he can carry three of you for a little ride,” Buster’s 
father said. “ Come on.” But still Buster hung back. 

“ Not afraid, are you? ” his father asked. 

“ No,” said Buster. There did not seem anything more to 
say and the rest of the children stood looking at him, unable to 
understand this sudden turn of mind. 

“ You wanted to ride bad enough a minute ago,” said Ken¬ 
neth. “ Come on now.” 

“ I’ll bet you are afraid,” hooted Tommie. 

That decided it. “ I’m not! ” answered Buster. “ Put me 
up, Father.” And once on behind Tommie and Kenneth, he 
took a firm hold of Kenneth’s jacket. 

It was fine at first because Peekaboo only walked, but Tom¬ 
mie on the saddle felt a certain confidence and a longing for 
greater speed. 

“ Get up, Peekaboo! ” he cried. 

“ No! ” howled Buster, “ this is fast enough.” 

Kenneth sided with Tommie. “ We aren’t going to just 
poke along,” he said. “ You won’t fall off; get a good hold 


42 That Pink and Blue Affair 

around my waist.” But it was not the hold that was worrying 
Buster. 

“ I don’t want to trot,” he complained. 

Kenneth gave Peekaboo a dig with his heels. “ Anyway we 
are going to trot,” he said, “ it’s two against one.” And Peek¬ 
aboo broke into a nice joggy trot. 

Thump! thump! went Buster on the very end, and with every 
thump he could feel the matches in his pocket. His heart sank 
and he just knew they would light. He was right. About the 
third thump something went “ Sizz! ” and Buster felt the whole 
bunch burst into flame. 

“ Wow! ” he shrieked. “ I’m on fire. I want to get off! ” 

A sudden violent kick from Peekaboo almost gave him his 
wish. 

“What’s the matter?” screamed Kenneth, and Tommie 
howled “Whoa! Whoa!? 

But whoaing was the very thing Peekaboo did not intend 
to do. He put his head out and flattened down in long fright¬ 
ened leaps. Down the road he tore, the three boys screaming 
at the tops of their voices and swaying from one side to the 
other as they clung desperately to each other. 

Ahead was a large puddle. Straight for it rushed the ter¬ 
rified Peekaboo. He intended to get that hot thing from his 
back and he knew the surest and quickest way to do it. He 
made for the puddle at top speed and at the edge of it came 
to an abrupt halt with his head between his front legs and his 
back well up in the air. 

The boys did not hesitate a second. On they sailed with 
their legs out sitting in the air exactly as they had been sitting 
on Peekaboo, Tommie waving his arms like a windmill, Ken¬ 
neth clinging desperately to his waist and Buster sticking like 


That Pink and Blue Affair 43 

a burr to Kenneth. There was a frightened yell from the three, 
a great splash, and they found themselves planted in the pud¬ 
dle. 

Peekaboo turned and trotted back to the yard where he be¬ 
gan placidly to nibble grass as if nothing had happened. 

Buster’s father ran down the road to meet the wet and 
muddy three. 

“ What happened? ” he cried. 

“ Well,” explained Buster, “ I must have had some matches 
in my pocket, and they must have lighted and it must have 
burned Peekaboo a little, anyway . . .” 

“ That is enough,” said his father shortly. “ What were you 
doing with matches in your pocket? ” 

Buster began to cry. “ The Boy Scouts carry them,” he 
explained between sobs. 

His father turned to Tommie and Kenneth. “ You go back 
and tell Grandmother what happened,” he said. “ Buster is 
going Home with me, and you might tell Grandmother that 
Buster will not be asking to ride Peekaboo again this week.” 
And taking his wet, bedraggled, and sobbing son by the hand 
he walked briskly down the street. 


CHAPTER VI 


I T had rained for a week and the children were growing 
dreadfully bored with themselves and their playthings. 

“ It isn’t so bad to have weather like this in winter and 
to have to stay in the house,” Marcia complained, “ but to have 
to stay in six whole days in the summer is just awful. It hasn’t 
any right to behave like this outdoors.” 

“ It’s a funny thing about rain,” mused Tommie who was 
sitting cross-legged on a lounge and looking with a scowly face 
at the downpour outside. “ You can always walk to school 
in it and you can never play in it.” 

“ I know it,” Kenneth said, “ it’s * What! miss your school 
on account of a little rain? Why do you think I bought you 
that raincoat and hat and rubbers? ’ ” and Buster broke in with: 

“ 4 Of course you must go to school, dear; the rain won’t hurt 
you.’ ” 

“ Cara and I hear the same thing,” Marcia added her com¬ 
plaint to the others. “ My mother says, ‘ You don’t want to be 
marked absent just because the sun doesn’t shine, do you? ’ 
But I’ve noticed that we are never allowed to play in the rain; 
then they shout, ‘ Come right in out of that wet; do you want to 
catch your death of cold? ’ ” 

Silence fell among them again. The rain pattered on the 
windows and off in the distance a growl of thunder made the 
outside world drearier than ever. 

“Now listen to that,” scolded Tommie. 

“ I hate thunder-storms,” said Elizabeth Anne. 

“ ’Fraid? ” asked Kenneth in a teasy voice. Even Kenneth’s 

44 


That Pink and Blue Affair 45 

sunny disposition was beginning to show the effects of the hard 
week inside. 

“ No, I’m not,” snapped Elizabeth Anne, “ and you know it. 
But thunder-storms make me kind of siek to my stomach. Not 
really, but just sort of. When there comes a great big roar I 
feel like I did when we crossed the lake and Mother put me 
to bed early.” 

“ I know that feeling,” Marcia said sympathetically, “ I have 
it too.” 

Once more they were silent. The kitty walked in with her 
back arched and her tail very straight in the air. She rubbed 
against Buster’s legs and purred. Buster gave her an impa¬ 
tient little push and she hopped indignantly away and crawled 
on Marcia’s lap. 

“ Go away,” said Marcia crossly and brushed her off. 

The kitty stopped purring. This was not the treatment she 
usually got at the hands of the children. Generally they all 
wanted to play with her and run before her with a string and 
bouncy cork. She walked away and sat down in the window 
and looked out. Her tail swished peevishly back and forth. 

“ Even Musette is cross at the weather,” said Tommie. 

“ Nobody likes it and nothing likes it,” Kenneth said. 

“ Frogs do,” answered Buster. He hoped to start an argu¬ 
ment ; he felt like quarreling with somebody. 

“ How do you know? ” asked Tommie. He felt the same 
way. 

“ They don’t,” said Colin who was also cross. 

“ Yes they do,” Buster went on. “ All frogs like damp 
places, and they like slosh and muggy holes.” 

“ Yes, and they sit in the sun too,” said Tommie. “ Even 
water animals like sun once in a while.” 


46 


That Pink and Blue Affair 


“ Turtles do,” said Elizabeth Anne. 

“ So do snakes,” said Colin, “ and even gold fish like to swim 
in the sun; they are the prettiest then.” 

The chanees of a quarrel were rather good, but Buster was 
too lazy to go on with it. 

“ I don’t care about fish and snakes; I know that frogs like 
rain. Anyway I don’t care what likes it and what doesn’t.” 

And again they were all silent. Elizabeth Anne had a pin 
in her hand. She began folding little pleats in her frock and 
pinning them down. Ivenneth watched her with frankly un¬ 
interested eyes; he looked at her because there was nothing else 
to look at. Tommie pulled a knife from his pocket and sharp¬ 
ened it on the sole of his shoe as he had seen Henry do. Marcia 
watched him lazily and wondered how loud he would howl if 
he cut himself. Cara and Buster were staring at Colin who 
was lying on his back and drawing imaginary lions in the air 
with a grubby forefinger. 

“ Oh! ” cried Cara suddenly, “ isn’t this awful? I’m so sick 
of you all and so sick of myself.” 

“ I’m sick of you too,” said Tommie irritably, “ and I’m sick 
of my house and the Big House, and I’m sicker than anything 
of skies the color of my slate.” 

“ If there was only something to do,” wailed Marcia. 

“ There is,” said a soft voice at the door, and the children 
all turned and then jumped, and stared with wide open mouths. 

There in the doorway stood a quaint little figure that they 
had never seen before. A darling little old lady with the sweet¬ 
est smile imaginable and twinkling eyes. She was dressed in 
soft gray silk with a wide white kerchief around her neck and 
she wore gray shoes and stockings. She did not speak again 
but just stood there and smiled. 


47 


That Pink and Blue Affair 

The children were too astonished to move. Kenneth was the 
first to remember his manners and jumped to his feet and 
walked toward her. 

“ How do you do? ” he said politely. “Are you a friend of 
Grandmother’s? ” 

“ Perhaps,” the little lady smiled. 

“ Have you come to see her? ” Kenneth went on, “ and are 
you looking for her? ” 

“ No,” said the little lady. “ I was looking for seven little 
cousins who are cross with each other because it rains.” 

The children looked ashamed. 

“ I wonder if you are the ones,” the little lady went on. “ It 
doesn’t seem to me that you could be cross and whiny just be¬ 
cause it is bad weather.” 

“ Well, you see,” explained Buster, “ we’ve been in an aw¬ 
fully long while, a whole week, and Grandmother bought 
us a pony and we want to ride and drive, and there are 
a million things to do outdoors and nothing at all to do in the 
house.” 

The little lady in gray looked about her, at the comfortable 
chairs and lounge, the cheerful fire crackling in the grate, the 
kitty in the window and the two dogs curled up on the hearth. 

“ It seems a very nice house,” she said gently, and the chil¬ 
dren wondered why they should feel ashamed again. 

Kenneth sprang to the defense of the Big House. “ It is; 
we all love it,” he said. 

“ There does not seem to be anything in it to make seven 
cousins cross,” the little lady went on, half to herself and half 
to the children. 

“ It isn’t what’s in the house that makes us cross, it is what 
is out of it,” Colin explained, and the rest laughed. 


48 That Pink and Blue Affair 

“ That’s better,” said the little lady. “ Now I’m not afraid 
to join you, but I never would have dared while you looked such 
thunder-clouds.” 

She walked over to the children and they all stood until she 
was seated on the lounge and then Colin, who took to strangers 
with the greatest ease and confidence promptly sat down by her 
side. That was enough for the rest and they all piled on the 
lounge and as close to the fascinating little lady as they could 
get. 

“ Have you been cross and snappy with each other all day? ” 
she asked of nobody in particular. 

“ How did you know we had? ” asked Elizabeth Anne. 

“ My fairies told me,” the little lady answered. 

‘‘Fairies? have you fairy servants?” Marcia asked, though 
it seemed quite natural that this surprising caller should have 
fairies at her command. 

“ And elves, and hobgoblins and gnomes and such,” the little 
lady told them seriously. 

This was delightful. “ And do they tell you anything you 
want to know? ” asked Cara. 

“ Yes,” was the answer, “ and when they find things all 
snarly they come and ask me what to do about it, and if they 
can’t straighten the trouble after I have told them what to do 
then I come myself and generally things are all smooth when 
I leave.” 

“ I should think they would be,” said Elizabeth Anne; “ you 
are such a comfy sort.” 

“ You look like a Puritan to me,” said Marcia who had been 
studying about Puritans in school and was glad to show that 
she remembered about them. “ They wore gray dresses with 
white kerchiefs.” 


49 


That Pink and Blue Affair 

“ I am, in a way,” answered the little lady. 

“ What is your name? ” asked Kenneth. 

“ Patience, and that is why I am needed on a rainy day,” 
said the little lady, and for the third time the children were 
ashamed. 

Kenneth felt called upon to explain. “We aren’t always 
as touchy as this,” he said in his straightforward way. “ The 
first three days we played ever so happily. Grandmother let 
us race and yell in the ballroom and we had a play and dressed 
in the costumes that we found in an old dry-goods box. Even 
the fourth day we were good natured, but the fifth day we got 
tired of each other and it’s been not too happy since.” 

“ Did you try staying home and amusing yourselves alone? ” 
asked the little lady. 

“ That was even worse,” cried Marcia. “ Then we had no 
one to see how cross we were.” 

The little lady looked at her with a mischievous twinkle in 
her eyes, and suddenly she laughed; the merriest kind of a 
laugh. It made the children think of tinkling bells and music 
’way off, and it made them want to hug her. 

“ Oh! you funny dears,” she cried, and laughed again. “ I 
know just how you felt, and it is perfectly true that misery 
loves company, and what was the use in being cross by your¬ 
selves? If you aren’t for all the world like grown-ups; only 
they hate to admit that they enjoy having someone around 
when they are cross.” 

What an understanding little lady she was. Cara cuddled 
closer. 

“ You say the very things I think,” she said, and the little 
lady gave her a sympathetic hug. 

“ Right now the weather seems brighter,” said Tommie. 


That Pink and Blue Affair 


5° 



“ Eight Now the Weather Seems Brighter,” said Tommie. 











































That Pink and Blue Affair 51 

“ It is because you have forgotten to grumble about it,” 
laughed the little lady. “ The rain only stayed because it knew 
it bothered. Why didn’t you try smiling at it? I’m sure it 
would have gone away ashamed then.” 

“ It’s easier to smile at it now,” Kenneth said. 

The room had grown quite dark and the light from the crack¬ 
ling fire threw shadows about the silent, happy group on the 
lounge and around it. A spark flew out and landed near Sandy 
who got up and moved away from it. He lay down again at 
Buster’s feet and soon Pat joined him. The little lady said 
nothing and none of the children spoke, afraid to break the 
peaceful spell that seemed to have fallen over them. Where a 
minute ago there had been quarrelsome feelings and discontent 
there were now peace and quiet happiness, and so they sat con¬ 
tentedly silent waiting for the little old lady in gray to speak. 


CHAPTER VII 


A LOG in the grate burned briskly for a minute and then 
broke apart. The embers brightened and a shower of 
sparks flew up. The little lady moved ever so slightly 
and spoke in a gentle voice. 

“ Like wild geese,” she said. 

The children did not know what she meant but no one wanted 
to ask her. They felt that she was a sort of good fairy who 
had come to make them happier and kinder and that if they 
talked and broke the spell she might melt away. 

“ I will tell you a story,” she said in the same gentle voice, 
“ about wild geese in the fireplace and how they flew away like 
really geese and brought happiness to six people. Would you 
like to hear it? ” 

The grateful upturned faces answered her and she began. 



“ Years ago, long before you were born or before your 

62 












That Pink and Blue Affair 53 

fathers and mothers were born, when your grandparents were 
small children, this part of the country was very lonely* There 
were small villages many miles apart but only one big city in 
the southern part of the state. Many of the boys and girls 
who lived in the North had never seen a horse car or big build¬ 
ings and shops, but they spent their lives in the quiet country, 
and were very excited and proud when they were taken by 
their parents to the nearest village to do the monthly trading. 

“ There was only one store in the village where I lived and 
it was filled with things that were new and wonderful to the 
children. Materials for dresses, shoes, toys, groceries, hard¬ 
ware, baskets and hats, and sometimes candies. The children 
used to get that in small quantities, for money in those days 
was scarce and it was only when the storekeeper felt good na- 
tured that he would let some of the farmers’ wares be traded 
for candy. 

“ Many miles from the village there lived a little girl about 
my age. I remember that she was a sweet little girl with a 
wistful smile that was sad too, and a manner so shy that we 
were almost afraid of her. The other children who came in 
from the country used to race and play in the street and speak 
to everyone they saw, but this little girl stayed close to her 
mother and only smiled and shook her head when we invited 
her to play. 

“ Once I asked my mother about her and she told me some¬ 
thing that made me understand the sad smile. There had been 
two other children in the family, a little boy and a girl, and 
they had both been drowned in a flood where the family lived 
before coming to our part of the country. 

“ The little girl’s mother never got over the shock and the 
little girl herself mourned for her lost brother and sister, but 


54 That Pink and Blue Affair 

she was good and brave about it because she knew how much 
her mother depended upon her for courage and strength. 

“ Christmas day was the hardest of all for them, for they 
had had such happy times together then, and although the par¬ 
ents did not have much they always arranged to give their chil¬ 
dren nice gifts and a Christmas tree. 

“ The story I am going to tell you took place just before 
Christmas and after they had been in the village for supplies. 
The mother was unusually sad and the little girl’s smile seemed 
more wistful and pathetic than ever. I remember when they 
left the store somebody said: 

“ ‘ It won’t be a happy Christmas in that house; not like the 
one they had two years ago,’ and I knew it wouldn’t. But I 
ran out into the street when the father tucked the little girl 
and her mother in the big sleigh, and called to them, * A Merry 
Christmas and Happy New Year,’ and they called back, 
* Thank you, and a Merry Christmas to you too.’ Then they 
drove away with the little girl cuddled to her mother and the 
snow falling and blowing about them. 

“ What happened when they got home we learned later, but 
it was a wonderful thing that brought them all happiness. 

“ The house was cold when they reached it, for they had not 
dared to leave fires when they started on their long drive to the 
village and the father built a roaring fire in the great fireplace. 

“ ‘ We’ll keep it going during the evening and the house will 
be nice and warm in the morning,’ he said, ‘ and my little girl 
will not freeze when she looks in her Christmas stocking.’ And 
the little girl smiled a brave little smile at him. 

“ After that they sat before the fire and looked silently into 
the flames. There were burning embers like these and on the 
back of the grate the soot burned in wiggly lines, like little 


That Pink and Blue Affair 55 

flaming fairies dancing after one another. Those are what I 
called ‘ wild geese,’ and some people call them 4 children going 
to school.’ ” 

44 Because they don’t go straight? ” asked Kenneth. 

“ That would be a very good reason,” laughed the little lady. 

“ Well, to go on with the story. The little girl watched the 
sparks a long time and then said, ‘ I wonder if the wild geese 
want to get up the chimney and fly away,’ and her father an¬ 
swered: 

“ ‘ I’ll help them,’ and threw a log on the fire. The sparks 
shot up in a glowing mass and the flames danced after. 

“ ‘ They must be in the sky now,’ said the little girl, and her 
mother answered, ‘ In the sky and free, like real wild geese,’ 
and then they were silent again. 

“ Suddenly they heard a cry. It came through the wind and 
snow, a hollow, weird sound, like a call for help. 

“ The father started. 4 Someone is in trouble,’ he said. 4 I’ll 
go and see.’ He slipped into his coat and opened the door. 
Again came that desperate call, muffled and far away. 

44 The little girl’s mother raised the shades to send a shaft 
of light into the snow outside. 4 Hurry,’ she said. 4 1 will have 
warm blankets and tea ready,’ and the father stepped into the 
storm. 

44 After a long time he returned and he was carrying in his 
arms a child. 

44 4 There is another,’ he said shortly, 4 and a man. I’ll be 
right back. It took me a long time to find them for they did 
not call again and were half buried in the snow. The horse is 
dead in the shafts; he got off the road and in the deep snow. 
The children are almost frozen and I am afraid the man is 
dead.’ 


56 That Pink and Blue Affair 

“ But the man was not dead, and when the father had carried 
him into the warm house and he was taken care of by the little 
girl’s mother, he revived and was soon able to talk. 

“ The story he told was a sad one. The children’s mother 
had died and he was taking them to their grandmother’s, but 
only for a time, as she was an old woman and could not take 
care of them. The poor man was distracted. He was out of 
work and was going to try to buy a farm and settle down with 
his babies to care for them as best he could. But he was dis¬ 
couraged and sick and feared that he could not give them the 
proper attention. 

“ ‘ I can’t bear to send them to an orphan asylum,’ he 
finished, ‘ but I may have to, for they are too young to help me 
and I am not strong enough to work and take care of them, 
too.’ 

“ The little girl heard the story with a serious face, and then 
she left the two children by the fireplace where she had been 
cuddling them and went to her mother’s side. 

“ ‘ Mother,’ she said, but there was no need to ask the ques¬ 
tion in her mind; her mother turned to the stranger. 

“ ‘ Oh! ’ she cried, ‘ give me your babies to love and care for; 
they will take the place of my two lost darlings. You can buy 
a farm near us and you will not have to give up your children 
entirely. We will love them as we would our own.’ 

“ The little girl went to the man. ‘ Don’t say no,’ she whis¬ 
pered. * I am so lonely. My own brother and sister were 
killed; I am so very lonely.’ 

“ The man looked at her mother with eyes filled with tears. 

‘ You are a Christmas Angel,’ he said, and then did not speak 
again. 

“ But the little girl and her mother knew then that the house 


That Pink and Blue Affair 


57 


would no longer be empty and sad, and with a cry of happiness 
the little girl gathered the two children on her lap. They put 
their drowsy heads on her arms and she hummed a song to them 
as she rocked gently back and forth. 

“ The log on the fire broke, as the log has just broken in this 
fireplace, and once more the sparks danced up. The man 
looked gratefully at the flames and then at the gentle woman 
near him. 

“ ‘ It was the fire that brought us here,’ he said. ‘ I saw the 
sparks and called just before I fainted/ And the little girl’s 
mother answered: 

“ ‘ Bless the wild geese for that flight, for on their wings 
they carried happiness.’ ” 



The little lady’s gentle voice died away. There was a magic 
in her soft tones that seemed to weave a spell over them and 
not one of the children cared to speak. Quite gently she stood, 






58 That Pink and Blue Affair 

and smiling on them walked slowly to the door. The children 
realized that they were going to lose her, and the spell broke. 

“Don’t! don’t go!” Marcia cried and the rest echoed, 
“ Don’t! please don’t! ” 

But the little lady said nothing, only smiled. She stood at 
the door a minute and her dear face grew more serious. She 
put her delicate finger to her lips. 

“ You mustn’t speak until I have gone, and you must not 
follow me,” she said, and blowing them a kiss from the ends of 
her pretty fingers she backed slowly through the doorway and 
very, very gently closed the door after her. 

Suddenly Marcia cried out, “ I wish she would come back. 
Oh! why do I feel like crying? ” 

Cara put her head in her arms and began to sob. “ I just 
know she will never come back,” she wailed. “ She was magic, 
and we’ve lost her for always.” And Kenneth answered 
gruffly: 

“ Don’t he silly, Cara; of course she is real. There aren’t 
magic people any more. Anyway didn’t you touch her? 
Didn’t you know that she was real? ” 

But he wondered all the time why he felt like crying himself. 


CHAPTER VIII 


u HE’S here! ” cried Colin, “ and she’s real.” 

His little face was all shiny with excitement and hap¬ 
piness as he greeted his cousins at the door the next 
morning. 

Elizabeth Anne cried “ Goody! Goody! ” and Kenneth and 
Buster said in a very grown-up way indeed, “ That’s fine.” 

“ How did you find her? ” Marcia wanted to know. 

“ Well,” answered Colin, “ last night when I asked Grand¬ 
mother about her she wouldn’t tell me a thing; all she would 
say was, 4 If you children thought she was magic, maybe she 
truly was.’ But this morning when I went down to the break¬ 
fast table, there she was and she wears that pretty gray dress 
all the time, and she is really a Quaker, and her name is really 
Patience, and-” 

“ How does she happen to be here visiting? ” Tommie in¬ 
terrupted. 

“ She is an old friend of Grandmother’s; they played to¬ 
gether when they were children and she is going to be here 
two weeks. She is just as darling this morning as she was last 
night, and she says she loves children and knows more stories, 

and she says she will tell us more, and-” Colin stopped 

for breath, but he was wound up like a clock and began again, 
“ I asked her about the elves and she said-” 

Tommie interrupted again, “ Your smile runs around your 
face twice, Colin.” 

“ You’ll smile when you see her,” Colin grinned, and acting 

on the hint the children rushed into the house. 

59 





6 o 


That Pink and Blue Affair 

Grandmother first. They waited in line to kiss her and 
wish her good-morning, and then flung themselves on their new 
aunt. 

It was as Colin had said; she was just as dear in the morning 
as she had been the night before. 

“ She was little-girl-teasy, too,” Marcia said afterward and 
so she had been. 

“ Where are the scowls? ” she asked, and Kenneth answered; 

“ All gone because the sun is out.” 

“ Poor old sun, he was afraid to come out before; you all had 
such black faces.” And the children laughed. 

“ Grandmother,” said Kenneth, “ I was thinking on the way 
up what a wonderful day for a picnic. Couldn’t we all go at 
noon and take our mothers and fathers, just to celebrate Aunt 
Patience’s coming? ” 

“ I was thinking something very much like that,” answered 
Grandmother. “ Do you want to ask your mothers and fa¬ 
thers? ” 

“No!” shouted the children together, “you ask them and 
then they will surely come.” 

Grandmother laughed. “ All right,” she said, “ I’ll ask 
them and we will plan to leave at eleven o’clock.” 

The, children rushed back to their own homes to help get 
ready for the picnic. Marcia and Cara made thin bread and 
butter sandwiches, and Tommie and Kenneth and Buster took 
turns freezing the ice-cream. Elizabeth Anne helped Cook 
make three lemon pies and a meat loaf, and the rest of the 
things were to be made at the Big House. At eleven o’clock 
promptly the cousins were back at Grandmother’s and waiting 
for their parents. 

Grandmother said the children could drive Peekaboo and the 


6 i 


That Pink and Blue Affair 

grown-ups were going in the big park phaeton and the light 
carriage. Roy was to drive that, and Henry was to drive the 
park phaeton with Grandmother and Aunt Patience in the back 
seat, while two of the fathers packed in the front seat with 
Henry. The rest crowded into the light carriage and away 
they went. 

Peekaboo trotted along behind with his eager little nose close 
to the other carriage all of the way. The children were charmed 
with him. 

“ He’s as fast as the big horses,” Kenneth boasted, and Cara 
said: 

“ He could trot much faster if they weren’t in the way.” 

“ Let’s get in front of them when we come to a good place 
to turn out,” Tommie suggested. 

Kenneth was driving. “We could pass them all right,” he 
said, “ and when we get out of this sandy road I’ll turn out.” 

The road was very sandy indeed and the trees grew close on 
each side, but as they neared the lake the trees were not so thick 
and finally they came to a little open space where brown sod 
on the side made it possible to turn out. 

“ Look out,” sang Kenneth, and turned Peekaboo. The 
willing little pony broke into a smart trot and passed the big 
carriage in a burst of speed, the children shouting derisively, 
“ Aren’t you ever coming? ” and “ What slow old poke horses 
you have.” 

But pride rides before a fall, and the children looking back 
to wave triumphantly, did not see a pine stump ahead. Peek¬ 
aboo did, and wisely turned aside, but he thought only of his 
own little four feet and not of the wheels. There was a crash 
of the steel rim against the stump, a startled leap from Peek¬ 
aboo, and over went the cart. 


62 


That Pink and Blue Affair 

Out went the children in a heap. Kenneth under them all. 
Marcia head first with her nose in the sand. Colin and Cara all 
mixed up and the rest all arms and legs where they didn’t be¬ 
long. 

The fathers leaped from the big carriages and rushed up. 
Peekaboo stood perfectly still, looking around as much as to 
say: 

“ It wasn’t my fault. I tried to turn out.” 

“ Nobody hurt,’^Marcia’s father called back to Grand¬ 
mother. “ They have just made salads of themselves.” 

That made the older children laugh, but Elizabeth Anne was 
screaming at the top of her voice, “ I’m hurt 1 I’m hurt! My 
face is all covered with blood.” 

“ So is mine,” screamed Cara. 

“ Blood nothing,” shouted Kenneth; “ you are both all cov¬ 
ered with pie.” And sure enough both of the girls had landed 
ploop! in the lemon pie and had smeared it all over their hair 
and neck and ears. 

That tickled Tommie, and when he found out that they were 
not hurt he sank to the ground in a gale of laughter and kicked 
his heels in wicked glee. Colin followed suit and even the fa¬ 
thers had to laugh. Cara looked uncertain but when Elizabeth 
Anne ran her tongue out and licked lemon pie from her lips, 
Cara laughed too. 

Henry drove up with Grandmother who looked a little 
frightened. 

“ Grandmother has pie-faces for grandchildren,” Tommie 
chanted and then everyone laughed. 

There was no pie left, but Grandmother said: 

“ Never mind that,—Huldah baked a wonderful cake and 


That Pink and Blue Affair 63 

with the ice-cream and candy and fruit you’ll never miss the 
pie.” 

“ Anyway, picnics never go smoothly,” said Buster in a 
quaint way. “ That’s the best part of them.” 

The picnic ground was reached and the table was set. Of 
course it was only a make-believe table for they all sat on the 
ground, all but Grandmother and Aunt Patience who had 
chairs and were waited on by the rest. 

Roy and Henry unharnessed the horses and tied them to a 
fence with bags of oats on their noses, and then said they 
guessed they’d go to a near-by farm to see the farmer whom 
they knew. 

Elizabeth Anne and Cara scrambled down the bank 
with their fathers to have sticky pie washed off at the lake 
shore. 

At last the coffee and chocolate were cooked and dinner was 
ready. What a good dinner it was and how those hungry little 
cousins did eat. 

“ I’m through,” said Colin. “ I couldn’t eat another thing.” 

“ So’m I,” said Marcia and got up. 

“ Let’s play in the woods,” said Tommie, and all of the chil¬ 
dren got up. 

“ You can go anywhere you wish and do anything you wish,” 
said Grandmother; “ you won’t get into trouble around here.” 
And Cara’s mother added: 

“ But you musn’t go near the lake. Later in the afternoon 
you may all go in the water, but you must not wade or play in 
the water until then.” 

So the children raced away to the woods where they played 
Robin Hood and his band until four o’clock and then they were 
allowed to go bathing. They splashed about in the shallow 


6 4 


That Pink and Blue Aftair 



They Played at Eobin Hood and His Band, 




























That Pink and Blue Affair 65 

water for an hour and then were rubbed dry and dressed for 
supper. 

Staying for supper was Grandmother’s idea. 

“ It is such a lovely warm night,” she said, “ and there is 
plenty of food and Henry and Roy can drive the horses to the 
farmer’s barn. Shall we stay? ” 

“ Oh! please,” the children cried. 

There seemed to be as much to eat in the evening as there 
had been at noon. 

“Where did it all come from?” Elizabeth Anne’s father 
asked. 

“ The baskets are magic,” Marcia decided. “ Every time 
we take something out of them they fill right up again.” 

“ Like little Saint Elizabeth’s basket,” Aunt Patience told 
them. 

“ Tell us about her basket,” the children begged. So they 
all gathered around the little bonfire the fathers had made 
and Aunt Patience told them the story of the lonely little 
girl named Elizabeth who wanted to be like Saint Elizabeth 
and help the poor. She had everything in the world that money 
could buy, but she did not have love, for her parents were 
dead and she lived with a grandfather who did not understand 
her. Elizabeth wanted to do kind things and visit the poor, 
and Aunt Patience told how the innocent little girl went alone 
to a very dreadful part of the city and was roughly treated 
by people of the slums. How her fur coat was taken from her 
and how her grandfather found her, cold and weary with her 
little basket of food for the poor who had laughed at her and 
frightened her. Like the real Saint Elizabeth she thought the 
contents of her basket would turn to anything she wished, and 
when her grandfather, shocked at finding her, had asked sternly 



66 


That Pink and Blue Affair 

what was in the basket, she fell exhausted at his feet and whis¬ 
pered, “ Roses.” But the miracle was not performed and later 
the grandfather got the whole story from her. It made him 
realize how lonely she was and he grew to love her dearly, so 
that she was never unhappy again, and after all there was a 
sort of miracle in the life of little Saint Elizabeth. 

Aunt Patience told the story simply, in that low, sweet voice 
of hers and the children listened enraptured. The parents who 
had listened at first to be polite found themselves as interested 
as the children, and when Aunt Patience finished there was a 
deep silence. 

A whippoorwill’s clear note sounded from a near-by grove 
and directly there was an answering call from another grove. 
The crickets chirred and all about were soft little night sounds. 
Like a ball of gold the sun dipped down behind the lake and 
left a radiant shaft that melted into the darkness and soon the 
stars began to twinkle in the sky. 

The cousins cuddled to the grown-ups. No one wanted to 
talk, and silently the}'' watched the friendly little fire. Far 
in the distance a dog barked. After a long time Grandmother 
spoke: 

“ The picnic is over,” she said gently, “ and we must all be 
going home, * Kiddies and Grown-ups too.’ ” 

And still silent, with the spell of the summer night over them, 
they all drove away from the picnic ground, the friendly little 
fire twinkling a good-night to them. 


THE END 






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